The field of art to which the present invention belongs is concerned with a device for dispensing fasteners molded from a synthetic resin to a filament-like structure having a head and an anchor bar at one and the other ends thereof and dispensed in for example arranging a plurality of made-up goods in pairs or, more typically, in anchoring tags to various items of merchandise, and the device is often referred to also as a tag attacher.
More specifically, the invention relates to a fastener dispensing device which can without fail feed and dispense individual fasteners of a given fastener assembly one at each time of the operation of the device even where fastener assemblies different in the inter-fastener pitch are dealt with.
Fasteners termed above mean such products which are today widely utilized typically in or for anchoring various tags such as price tags for example to various commercial articles and which are therefore widely called tagging pins or, more briefly, tag pins. Thus, in the following description of the invention, reference will be made to tagging pins in representation of the fasteners.
Tagging pins are manufactured by molding a synthetic resin such as nylon, polypropylene and so forth, and as later to be described in greater detail, they individually comprise a filament having a head and an anchor bar or crossbar integrally formed at one and the other ends thereof. The filament has a connection neck comprising its end portion extended beyond the crossbar away the head, and through connection necks, a number of individual tagging pins are formed in series on their common connecting bar to the form of an integral assembly of pins. Tagging pins are manufactured in the form of assemblies as above, for reasons of an ease in the manufacture and also an ease in handling such as packaging, transportation, dispensing and so forth, and normally 20 to 50 pins are arranged on a single connecting bar. Further, for reasons to do with the fabrication of molds and for conveniences in loading in a dispensing device and dispensing by the device, tagging pins are formed at distances of the order of 2 mm on the connecting bar in most of tagging pin assemblies.
In dispensing operations, tagging pins are loaded in a dispensing device assembly by assembly, and are severed from the assembly and dispensed one at a time of the operation of the device. As later to be described in greater detail, the dispensing device has a pistol-type overall structure, and broadly it comprises a lever or trigger adapted to rock relative to a main body having a slot-provided hollow needle removably mounted at a nose portion thereof. An arrangement is made such that when the trigger is operated, individual tag pins are successively severed from a tag pin assembly loaded in a guide groove formed in a part of the main body rear of the hollow needle and successively fed to the prescribed point in the groove, and are dispensed through the needle with the crossbar or anchor bar applied through an article or articles.
In conventional fastener dispensing devices, use is made of a toothed wheel for the mechanism for feeding tag pins individually successively to the prescribed point for shooting in the device, and an arrangement is made such that with a tooth of the wheel engaged between adjacent connection necks on the connecting bar of a loaded tag pin assembly, the toothed wheel is rotated one tooth distance at a time by rocking the trigger so as to perform feeding of the tag pin assembly.
As before stated, the distance between each adjacent tagging pins on the connecting bar is in most cases 2 mm approximately, and the distance between each adjacent connection necks is also about 2 mm, therefore.
Whereas the inter-pin distance or pitch is almost fixed as above for reasons indicated before, it has of late been increasingly required to alter the inter-pin pitch: This is not only because it is advantageous from the viewpoint of thermal economy to make molds smaller and thereby reduce the thermal capacity of molds, but also because it is also advantageous if molds can be produced at a reduced cost.
Further, in case it is desired to manufacture tagging pins having a greater filament length, it is required to accordingly increase the inter-pin pitch.
When the inter-pin pitch is thus altered or in case of any irregularity in the pitch attributable for example to an error in the manufacture of tag pin assemblies, an inconvenience is met with the feeding mechanism in conventional devices. That is to say, in conventional tag attachers teeth of a toothed wheel are engaged between connection necks of tagging pins, therefore if a change occurs in the distance or pitch between pins or their connection necks, the toothed wheel can no longer effectively mesh with its teeth, with the connection necks of tagging pins. Thus, insofar as tag pin assemblies to be dispensed all have about 2 mm for the pitch of the connection necks, conventional fastener dispensing devices can be effectively relied on in tag attaching operations, but they cannot effectively perform feeding of tag pin assemblies if the latter have any other pitch of the connection necks, inconveniently. A same as this is applicable also in case an irregularity exists in the arrangement of pins in a single pin assembly.